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Meet Ann-Louise, the new musical director for West Arts Productions musical, Oliver!. Her full name is Ann-Louise Jeffries Thaiss. She has been a musician ever since she was six! “I have always loved musical theater,” says Ann-Louise. She has always wanted to be a musical director and fulfilled her dream now that she is here. Her goal has always been to have a job to do with music. At first her goal. She also teaches general music, private voice lessons, piano and music for preschoolers.

Ann-Louise was working for another musical theater company, called Ya Yas. Ann-Louise said that how she became West Arts production’s musical director was that she was backstage, and Director Ed Munos was the stage manager and they hit it off, It worked out perfectly because West Arts Productions needed a director.

Although this is the first time she is working for West Arts, she has worked as the musical director for three other programs.

When asked why she wanted to get into the musical field, Ann-Louise responded by saying, “I came from a musical family, and since I had been exposed to that at a young age, I grew to love it.”

The kids in West Arts say that they have ‘music teacher abandonment issues’ because they have practically gotten a new music director every year, but Ann-Louise plans to stay for a while. “I enjoy the program, I feel at home here,” she says.

“I love Ann-Louise,” says Jozie Love, an eighth-grade student of Stacey who attends West Arts Productions “I find her energetic approach in teaching music engages us to learn.”

Ann- Louise started off playing the piano when she was six years old, then she started getting more and more into it as her teenage years approached. She then realized that’s what she wants to do with her career. She picked up the guitar and other instruments.